Gymnothorax moringa (Cuvier, 1829) AGG

Frequent synonyms / misidentifications: Lycodontis moringa (Cuvier, 1829) / None.FAO names: En - Spotted moray; Fr - Murène tachetée; Sp - Morena pintada.

Diagnostic characters: Body elongate, strong, and muscular, moderately compressed; anus shortly be-fore midbody. Head moderate, elevated posteriorly. Eye above midjaw; posterior nostril a rimmed poreabove anterior margin of eye.Snout moderate; jaws moderate, closing completely.Teeth smooth, some longcanines; teeth in both jaws uniserial in adults; 3 long fang-like median intermaxillary teeth; vomerine teethuniserial.Dorsal fin beginning on head between corner of mouth and gill opening.Colour:head, body, and tailpatterned with small overlapping dark spots giving mottled appearance on pale background (yellowwith brown to purplish black spots in life);pattern variable in size of blotches and intensity of pigmentation.Dor-sal fin often with black margin anteriorly, and white margin far posteriorly on combined dorsal-caudal-anal fins.Young without spotted pattern and with white lower jaw, closely resembling young of G. vicinus.Size: Maximum 100 cm (questionably reported from 200 to 300 cm at Ascension Island).Habitat, biology, and fisheries: Very common on shallow coral reef, rock, and seagrass habitats, found atdepths to 50 m. Reported to be aggressive without provocation; dangerous when handled alive. Used as foodin some areas, large individuals reported to be ciguatoxic. Occasionally caught by trawl, seine, trap, andhook-and-line; of no commercial importance.Distribution: Widespread in the western Atlan-tic, from Bermuda, the Bahamas, off the Caroli-nas, the Florida Keys, throughout the CaribbeanIslands, off coastal Mexico, and central andnorthern South America. Also off Brazil (Area41), and taken at the south eastern Atlantic is-lands of St. Helena and Ascension (Area 34). Notfound in the eastern central Atlantic.

Anguilliformes: Muraenidae 711

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Gymnothorax ocellatus Agassiz, 1828 AMW

Frequent synonyms / misidentifications: None / Gymnothorax saxicola Jordan and Davis, 1891.FAO names: En - Mottlemargin moray; Fr - Murène ocellée; Sp - Morena de charco.

Diagnostic characters: Body strong and muscular with tapering tail; anus shortly before midbody.Head moderate. Eye above midjaw; posterior nostril a rimmed pore above anterior margin of eye. Snoutshort and rounded; jaws closing completely; 3 pores along upper jaw. Teeth strong, triangular, andshark-like, serrated on anterior and posterior margins; jaw teeth uniserial; 0 to 3 median intermaxillary teeth(absent in large specimens); vomerine teeth uniserial or absent. Dorsal fin beginning on head between mouthangle and gill opening. Colour: body grey-brown, darker dorsally and paler ventrally, with distinct,well-separated white spots of varying sizes and shapes; tail patterned, not dark; head brown with smallerwhite spots. Margin of dorsal fin with pattern of undulating black and white marks, anal fin with similarcoloration.Size: Maximum about 60 cm.Habitat, biology, and fisheries: Adults common on the continental shelf over sand and mud bottoms todepths of 90 m; habitat of young not known.Usually taken by trawl, occasionally by line.Possibly consumed lo-cally but not of commercial importance.Distribution: Found throughout the Antillean Chain, and off the central and northern South American coastfrom Nicaragua south to Venezuela. Present off the coast of Brazil (southwestern Atlantic, Area 41).Note: Three very similar species, G. ocellatus,G. nigromarginatus, and G. saxicola, havesometimes been synonymized, but are now con-sidered to be valid species; they might also beconfused with 2 other spotted species, G.conspersus and G. kolpos, which inhabit deeperwaters and which have more vertebrae; all 5 ex-hibit subtle colour differences and are separatedgeographically.

712 Bony Fishes

Gymnothorax vicinus (Castelnau, 1855) AMT

Frequent synonyms / misidentifications: Lycodontis vicinus (Castelnau, 1855) / None.FAO names: En - Purplemouth moray; Fr - Murène jaune; Sp - Morena amarilla.Diagnostic characters: Bodyelongate, strong and muscu-lar, laterally compressed; anusshortly before midbody. Headelongate. Eye above midjaw;posterior nostril a rimmedpore above anterior margin ofeye. Snout moderate; jaws elon-gate, closing completely. Teethsmooth, some long canines;teeth in both jaws uniserial inadults; 3 fang-l ike medianintermaxillary teeth; vomerineteeth uniserial. Dorsal fin be-ginning on head between cor-ner of mouth and gill opening.Colour: variably patterned, 2extreme patterns of adultsshown below. May be highlypatterned with overlappingdark spots, the pattern extend-ing onto fins; or almost uni-formly brown colour withfaint freckles of darker colour,fins dark basally and with palemargins.Corner of mouth witha characteristic small darkspot. In life, dark colour pur-plish brown, pale areas white,not yellow. Young uniformlybrown with pale lower jaw,closely resembling young of G.moringa.Size: Maximum 122 cm.Habitat, biology, and fisheries: Inhabits shallow rock and coral reef areas and seagrass beds; found atdepths to 40 m. Can be aggressive, dangerous when handled alive. May be consumed locally; large speci-mens possibly ciguatoxic. Occasionally caught by trawl, trap, and hook-and-line; of no commercial impor-tance.Distribution: Widespread in the western Atlan-tic, from Bermuda, the Bahamas, off NorthCarolina, the Florida Keys, and the northern Gulfof Mexico, throughout the Caribbean Islands,and off the central and northern South Americancoast. In the eastern central Atlantic off Madeira,the Cape Verde Archipelago, and the Bight ofBiafra (Area 34).Taken off Brazil (Area 41) and inthe southeastern Atlantic off Ascension Island(Area 47).

Anguilliformes: Muraenidae 713

Muraena retifera Goode and Bean, 1882 MMR

Frequent synonyms / misidentifications: None / None.FAO names: En - Reticulate moray.

Diagnostic characters: Body strong, elongate, and tapering; anus at or before midbody. Head moder-ate, elevated posteriorly. Eye above midjaw; posterior nostril in a tube above anterior margin of eye. Snoutmoderate, jaws moderate, closing completely.Teeth smooth, large, and strong; teeth of adults uniserial; 2 or3 long median intermaxillary teeth; vomerine teeth uniserial. Dorsal fin beginning on head between corner ofmouth and gill opening. Colour: brown to dark brown background with close-set, pale rosettes which arepeppered with bright white dots; head brown with small white spots, the rosette pattern beginning near gillopening.Gill opening in prominent black blotch.Margins of fins pale.Small eels appear dark with large palespots; rosette pattern sometimes inconspicuous in adults, which then appear dark brown overall with smallwhite dots.Size: Maximum to 90 cm.Habitat, biology, and fisheries: Lives in continental coastal waters over mud or sand bottoms at depths from20 to 90 m; not common. Taken by trawl, occa-sionally by trap or hook-and-line. Possibly con-sumed locally; could be ciguatoxic; of nocommercial importance.Distribution: A coastal species, found off the At-lantic coast of the United States from NorthCarolina to Florida and in the eastern Gulf ofMexico off the west coast of Florida; also taken inthe Bay of Campeche, Mexico, and off northernVenezuela. Also present off Brazil (southwesternAtlantic, Area 41).

714 Bony Fishes

Anarchias similis (Lea, 1913)

En - Pygmy moray.Maximum size to 20 cm. Inhabits moderately deep waters, living on or near the bottom from 30 to 100 m. Un-common, taken by dredge. Too small to be consumed or of commercial importance. Bermuda, coastal UnitedStates (Georgia to Florida), the Bahamas, southern Antilles, and Nicaragua coast. Also off Brazil (southwest-ern Atlantic, Area 41).

Enchelycore anatina (Lowe, 1838)

En - Fangtooth moray; Fr - Murène de Iles; Sp - Morena isleña.Maximum size to over 110 cm. Inhabits deep waters, below 50 m.Uncommon, taken by trap and hook-and-line.Possibly consumed locally; of no commercial importance. From scattered localities of Bermuda and Florida inthe western central Atlantic; Brazil (south western Atlantic, Area 41); St. Helena (southeastern Atlantic, Area47); Madeira, Azores, Canaries, and Cape Verde (eastern central Atlantic, Area 34); and in the eastern Medi-terranean (Area 37).

Enchelycore carychroa Böhlke and Böhlke, 1976

En - Chestnut moray.Maximum size 34 cm. Common inhabitant of shallow coral reefs and rocks to depths of 15 m, occasional to60 m. Infrequently taken by dredge; too small to be consumed or of commercial importance.Widespread in thewestern Atlantic, from Bermuda, the Bahamas, Florida Keys, northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and coastal centraland northern South America. Also off northern Brazil (southwestern Atlantic, Area 41); and Ascension Islandand St. Helena (southeastern Atlantic, Area 47).

Anguilliformes: Muraenidae 715

Gymnothorax conspersus Poey, 1867

En - Saddled moray.Maximum size to 110 cm. Inhabits deep waters, usually below 200 m. Taken by trawl, occasionally in deeptraps. Might be consumed locally; of no commercial importance. Tropical western Atlantic from Florida Straitssouth to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (Area 41).

Gymnothorax hubbsi Böhlke and Böhlke, 1977

En - Lichen moray.Maximum size 35 cm. Inhabits coastal waters at depths from 60 to 90 m. Rare, taken by trawl, occasionally bydredge.Too small to be consumed; of no commercial importance.Atlantic coast of USA from North Carolina toFlorida, the western Bahamas, and north coast of Cuba.

Gymnothorax maderensis (Johnson, 1862) AGD

En - Sharktooth moray; Fr - Murène de Madère; Sp - Morena de Madeira.Maximum size to 105 cm. Inhabits deep waters from 150 to 280 m. Rare, taken by hook-and-line or trap. Mightbe consumed locally; of no commercial importance. Western Atlantic from Bermuda, North Carolina, Cuba,Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands; eastern central Atlantic from Madeira, Canary Islands, and Dahomey(Area 34).

716 Bony Fishes

Gymnothorax nigromarginatus (Girard, 1858)

En - Blackedge moray.Maximum size to 53 cm.A common continental coast species inhabiting waters of 10 to 91 m.Taken by trawl, afrequent byproduct of Gulf coast shrimp fisheries.May be consumed locally, but not of commercial importance.Northern Gulf of Mexico from Mobile Bay area west to Texas, and off Yucatán and Honduras.

Gymnothorax polygonius Poey, 1876 AGI

En - Polygon moray.Maximum size to 84 cm. Lives in moderately deep waters of 90 to 256 m. Uncommon, taken by trawl, trap, andhook-and-line. Might be consumed locally; of no commercial importance. Western Atlantic from scattered lo-calities from North Carolina to Brazil (Area 41).Also eastern central Atlantic from Cape Verde Archipelago andMadeira (Area 34) and south eastern Atlantic island of St. Helena (Area 47).

Gymnothorax saxicola Jordan and Davis, 1891

En - Honeycomb moray.Maximum size to 62 cm. Lives along the continental coast at depths of 2 to 86 m. Common, usually taken bytrawl, a frequent byproduct of shrimp fisheries. Possibly consumed locally; of no commercial importance. At-lantic coast of the USA from North Carolina to Florida, and eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida west to MobileBay drainage.

Anguilliformes: Muraenidae 717

Monopenchelys acuta (Parr, 1930) MMA

En - Redface eel.Maximum size to 21 cm. Lives on coral heads and rocky ledges at moderate depths of 13 to 45 m. Rare; takenonce by dredge.Too small to be consumed; of no commercial importance.Circumtropical distribution; westernAtlantic islands of the Bahamas, Lesser Antilles, Grand Cayman, and off Mexico; also from Ascension Island(south eastern Atlantic, Area 47); in the Indo-Pacific from Hawaii, Fiji, Seychelles, Comoros, and Agalega Is-lands.

Muraena robusta Osório, 1909 MMO

En - Stout moray; Fr - Murène robuste; Sp - Morena robusta.Maximum size to 186 cm.Young inhabit shallow rock and coral areas;adults inhabit moderately deep waters of30 to 68 m.Adults caught by hook-and-line.Possibly consumed locally, but ciguatera poisoning should be con-sidered; not commercially important. Uncommon off North Carolina, Florida, and Panama; common in theeastern central Atlantic off the west coast of Africa and islands of Cape Verde and Bay of Biafra (Area 34).

Uropterygius macularius (Lesueur, 1825) MUH

En - Marbled moray.Maximum size to 29 cm. Inhabits coral and rocky areas at depths to 137 m. Rarely taken by dredge. Too smallto be consumed; not of commercial importance. An insular species, found in Bermuda, the Bahamas, FloridaKeys, throughout the islands of the Caribbean, and off northern South America.

718 Bony Fishes

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